The UFC 223 bus episode isn’t in the rear-view mirror only yet for Conor McGregor. The Irish superstar was sued by Michael Chiesa after he was injured in the dolly-throwing episode back in UFC 223, and we have details of the lawsuit. TMZ was the first to report the details of the litigation in a movie which you can watch at the conclusion of this report.
According to the TMZ report, Chiesa is claiming that the UFC 223 dolly incident was a publicity stunt on the part of McGregor, and Chiesa wants all McGregor’s profits from his mega struggle against Khabib Nurmagomedov in UFC 229. According to the lawsuit, the”Son of Sam” law in New York applies to this episode, where someone convicted of a crime can’t utilize that offense to profit. According to the lawsuit, Chiesa believes McGregor profited in the UFC 223 episode, partly because it attracted more attention to the card, and because the UFC utilized footage of the bus assault to market the McGregor vs. Nurmagomedov struggle at UFC 229. Keep in mind that the UFC 229 pay-per-view has been the largest selling PPV the UFC has done, so McGregor made countless dollars for that struggle, and Chiesa needs a piece of the pie.
Will Chiesa’s lawsuit be successful? Who knows at this point, and it’s possible this is eventually settled out of court. But clearly Chiesa was granted legal advice to carry this as far as he could go and he will attempt to make some money from it, also it is hard to blame him considering he had been legally injured in the bus attack. Thus far, fans and press have laughed off Chiesa’s suit. But everybody needs to recall Chiesa obtained facial cuts in the bus strike that forced him off the card. He later fought at UFC 226 and dropped by submssion into Anthony Pettis, and he should feel like he got the raw end of the deal. Chiesa is next scheduled to face Carlos Condit in the year-end UFC 232 card, but with this litigation in your mind you need to wonder whether it will affect him.
In terms of McGregor, he’s still dealing with the Nevada Athletic Commission in regards to the UFC 229 episode where Nurmagomedov jumped through the fence. It has been rumored McGregor plans to fight in MMA again in 2019, but till we see what kind of sanction he’ll get for UFC 229 it is hard to say exactly when he’ll compete again, and contrary to who. The bus attack clearly didn’t hurt McGregor’s stock as far as it hurt a number of the other fighters daily, including Rose Namajunas, who says the bus attack emotionally scarred her and that hasn’t fought since UFC 223. While McGregor has made countless since then, other fighters that afternoon such as Ray Borg were severely affected by the episode, and it is hard to blame those who were injured in the attack to attempt to sue McGregor and see what happens in the courts.